“I yam what I yam and that’s all that I yam, Right Olive?” It looks like the very first super-powered comic character in history may have been on the right track. Popeye got his strength from eating spinach. A recent study published in The Archives of Opthamology reports that spinach and other dark leafy vegetables prevent age related macular degeneration. Other eye problems are also reduced but AMD is the leading cause of blindness in folks between 60 and 80.
In an oddly related story, it seems that poor dentition and dementia have an unexplained relationship as well. A study in England noted that cognitive impairment and tooth loss have a high correlation. (They go together but cause and effect aren’t clear.) There could be inflammation or nutrition factors that create both conditions.
Last week I went on kind of a tirade about hand washing but never said this: Flu is probably carried to your upper respiratory tract by your hands, not from breathing in someone’s sneeze or cough. Advice: don’t touch your face unless you wash your hands first. That is tied for the best way to prevent flu with this: get a flu shot. If your Doctor isn’t giving flu shots, pay the pharmacy students at the corner drug store to give you one. It’s worth it.
So, let me review. Wash your hands. Eat your vegetables. Brush your teeth. Get your shots.
Now lest you mistake me for your mother, Eat chocolate, have a beer or glass of wine now and then and get plenty of physical intimacy. That’s advice every senior can put to use.